Should I be dead? (Last night's dive)

[SueMermaid]

asemili once bubbled...
How dangerous was this situation? Was it seriously as grim as it seemed or where we fairly safe?

How are you feeling? That's scary as hell. I agree that you need to seek medical attention, and with urgency. People die this way, and with fewer mistakes.

After all the dust settles, I suggest you review all the details of this dive, and make a long list of problems that happened, or had the potential to happen, even if they didn't. Commit them to memory. Then, never forget them, ever. Also, it would probably do you some serious good to read "The Last Dive". Then stick to less challenging diving if you turn out to be ok. Okay? We want you to live long enough to post some more.

 

[ScubaRon]

MikeFerrara once bubbled...
A consol isn't any good because you have to use a hand to find it and then get it in front of you. At night when you need a light that can take both hands. You can't afford to need both hands and all that time to check depth. On the wrist it just takes a glance with no other movement.

Your method certainly works, but a backlit console is just as easy: I can hold my pull dump in the left hand and the console (which shows me depth, ascend rate and air) in my right hand. The light is not really needed until you reach 15' or so.

If needed I can actually operate the pull dump and hold the console in my left hand.

So console's are fine as long as they are backlit.
ScubaRon

 

[cyklon_300]

Get your training updated immediately.

You show some serious knowledge and skills deficiencies...deep air night dive with no gauges, no ref line, ridiculously overweighted, uncontrolled ascents/descents...

Out of curiosity, was this in Lake Travis?

 

[asemili]

The verdict is the same as I thought. I need to watch for DCS symptoms very carefully and call immediately if I have any problems. I haven't had a single bit of pain or fatigue or nausea or anything for the last 14 hours post-dive. I'll live to dive another day, just going to take a week or two off and spend some time trying to recreate this one in a pool and figure out where my failure was.

You were grossly overweighted.

12 lbs, been diving with it for the last 50 or so dives. I don't sink at the surface with the belt on until I exhale. If anything, I may be 2 lb's over. The air in my buddies BC was compressing faster than his inflator could pump it in there.

Dumping all your air? Do you normally begin an ascent from 120 feet without first dumping all the air in your BC, and continuing to dump on the way up?

At depth, I had some air in my bc to maintian neutral bouyancy. I was completely unaware of the ascent until the last 15 or so seconds of it, where I did not have time to react. The air in the BC exapanded and made it shoot up faster and faster, all the while I didn't know I was even ascending. When I arrived at the surface, I dummped what little air had in expanded in the BC. It wasn't much. 500 lb's is plenty of bail-out-air. Even at depth - but you don't get two chances.

Don't mean to hurt your feelings, but you should get more training before someone gets hurt.

We can all use more training. I won't defend the fact that we where not prepared for this situation. This was an undesired learning experience. We already decided that we are all buying reels and extra lift bags this week to be able to build a temp ascent line with.

Wrist mounted analog depth gauge for $60

I have to have one!

If I had to guess I'd say your air got used up because you thought you were ascending when you were really hanging down there at 100 ft without moving

Correct, we spent an extra minute or two down there after we decided to surface. Those two minutes where a mistake, but at the time didn't seem all that critical.

should have to not only dump the bc but exhale completely and still just barely start down

When I began down after surfacing, the initial descent was very slow. I don't remember much of anything else about it other than my buddies told me we all dropped like rocks. Why I don't know.

 

[jrg]

I learned to dive with in the console, but I'm a right wrist mounted computer convert. It just makes everything easier.

I hope you're ok after all this. Call DAN & let us know how it goes.

 

[radagalf]

asemili once bubbled...


When I began down after surfacing, the initial descent was very slow. I don't remember much of anything else about it other than my buddies told me we all dropped like rocks. Why I don't know.

Perhaps, if as you've stated you are weighted properly, maybe one of your buddies is overweighted, as you did mention that they were holding on to you if I'm not mistaken. Either that or did you have something in tow (like a bag of crabs or something) that would have added to your weight without you realizing it - possibly overlooked?

Glad you're OK, dive safe!!

 

[asemili]

I'm not a member of Dan but my buddies are. I've alerted them to call DAN and at least ask if there's anything we need to do. We are all keeping close tabs on each other and the minute one of us shows any symptom, we will all go in and get it checked out. I've been planning on joining DAN now for the last few months but financial difficulties have made it prohibitive. The bottom line is that if I start showing symptoms, I'm going to be in a very bad position, so do me a favor and stay positive with me on this one.

I will be just fine. Or I'll have a very special medical bill or be quite dead. Yes I know the stakes and you can imagine how I feel.
:boom:

 

[jbd]

you need to develope a serious awareness of what is going on with your ears in regards to ascending and descending. Most, although not all, people can learn to tell they have changed depth by just 3 or 4 feet by simply paying attention to their ears.

It would seem that you have little recollection of certain points in the episode. It could be that you were quite paniced during those times. Had it not been for your buddies you might well have been dead.

Spend some really serious time developing and honing your sense of personal awareness. The life it saves will be your own.

BTW I am glad you came out of this OK.

 

[Boogie711]

$60 or $70 is a pretty cheap price to pay for peace of mind and on-call, excellent medical advice. Heck - I'd cough up for the membership after taking advantage of the phone call alone.

 

[asemili]

you need to develope a serious awareness of what is going on with your ears in regards to ascending and descending

You are right about that. During the ascent my ears began popping. I became confused and disoriented. I couldn't tell if I was pulling my buddy up or if my buddy was pulling me up. I didn't even think we where actually moving but a few feet. As you can see in the profile, our 1st ascent was very rapid. The second ascend was far worse.

I vaugly remember just before hitting the surfacing feeling those last few feet of ear squeeze getting released and thought, "something's wrong". By the time I had my PI in my hands, I was looking up at the sky.

When I dumped air, I felt NO SQUEEZE from what little I remember. I was in a panic, but don't have any recolection of any squeeze all the way down. Since I don't remember it anyway, I can't say for sure though. All I know is it's not something I'm going to repeat.